Monday, August 16, 2010

The System Is All Out Of Whack

I was just reading on the Emes V'Emunah blog about supporting the Yeshivah system and such and I weighed in the following:

Well, part of the problem is that we are putting the education of adult male Torah BUMS before that of the children. First and foremost, if families aren't able to put their children in Jewish schools then THIS should be a priority. It says in the Torah, "teach them to your children." It doesn't say to teach the adult males. When a man is learning and asks for grants for his kids for schools, the schools should be telling him to get off his BUTTTTTTON and GET TO WORK. Also, we should be raising money for schools to have money for large families to send multiple kids. Yet, I have yet to see a pushke for Yeshiva Central Queens, Bais Yaakov, Yeshiva Ketana.... etc. I would prefer to put money in there. Often all I see are pushkes for Israel and I know what that means. Finally, these men don't learn Torah because the Torah says over and over, go to work. I asked a kollel guy what they do all day. He told me what I believe is the truth, "Daven, Torah, lunch, Daven and basketball for the rest of the day."

5 comments:

Two specific things are out of wack in the system. First: the Rambam wanted an impenetrable iron wall between Torah and money. He wrote (Avot chapter 4) "the roshei yeshivot that tell people that there is a mitzvah to support them and their yeshivot are saying complete idiocy". The second problem is the power to drain of moral values and to dry up of intellect that Chareidi Judaism has.The reason for this is simple. The source for the philosophy or hashkafa of Mo and Chareidi Jews is not from the Talmud or from the Rambam. OJ have beliefs about the origin of Torah thousands of years ago but their beliefs about the human soul and the difference between right and wrong have nothing to do with what it says in that very same Torah they claim to believe is Divine. The essence of the value system has changed.

Forget commentary! Pirkei Avos says outright, "If there is no flour, there is no Torah." Loosely translated, if you don't have the capital necessary to support yourself, don't sit and learn! Get a job! Just remember that supporting your kids' yeshivas supports Torah learning too.

Though my note was about yeshivot I want to mention that the rambam did not want the position of a rav or rabbi either to be around. He wanted a complete separation between money and torah just like you don’t pay someone to pray to God or to put on tefilin. And the present day system has not produced one scholar of note. The old generation of torah giants from Europe and the people that have replaced them are midgets. This is a busted system. The solution is not clear to me but I think as long as the old system is still around a clear solution will not be forth coming. If Yeshivot would produce even people of slightly higher moral stature than the average I would not complain. The problem is from the vast amount of money the state of Israel pores into the yeshivot it seems little of worth comes out. (Even a simple thank you would be nice—but when was the last time you heard someone from the Mir Yeshiva in Yerushalaim express gratitude towards the state that provided his yeshiva stipend? I bet you never did.)